Английский язык для юристов


UNIT 5. HISTORY OF PUNISHMENT



Pdf көрінісі
бет231/298
Дата25.01.2023
өлшемі3,06 Mb.
#62776
түріУчебник
1   ...   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   ...   298
Байланысты:
Учебник для бакалавров

UNIT 5. HISTORY OF PUNISHMENT 
 
TEXT 
 
History of Punishment 
Vocabulary 
 
1. vindictive – мстительный, злопамятный 
2. superstition – суеверие, предрассудок 
3. savagery – жестокость 
1. Прочитайте текст и расскажите о различных видах наказаний
In a primitive society punishment was left to the individuals wronged and was vindictive or retributive: 
in quantity and quality it would bear no special relation to the character or gravity of the offenсe. 
Gradually there arose the idea of proportionate punishment of which the characteristic type is “an eye 
for an eye”. In early times a superstitious belief in omens, ghosts, witchcraft was very common. 
Superstitions maintained a grip on the lives of many people. It was tempting and easy to blame almost 
any misfortune on somebody else, and sometimes senile old women were the target of being accused 
of all kinds of witchcraft. “Witches” were frequently executed.
Trial by ordeal is a judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused is 
determined by subjecting them to an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience. Indeed, the term ordeal 
itself has the meaning of “judgment, verdict”. In some cases the accused were considered innocent if 
they survived the test or if their injuries healed. In others, only death was considered proof of 
innocence. If the accused died they were often presumed to have gone punishment. In medieval 
Europe trial by ordeal was considered a procedure based on the premise that God would help the 
innocent by performing a miracle.
With the passage of time the attitude of society towards the excesses of the criminal law 
gradually changed. The courts and the people themselves came to rebel against all the savagery. As to 
the people, the last public execution in England took place in 1868, in front of Newgate Prison. The 
condemned man was Michael Barrett, an Irish rebel sentenced for his part in a bomb attack. The crowd 
sympathized with Barrett and was so hostile towards the hangman that the execution almost caused a 
riot. From that time onwards all executions were held inside prisons. It was not until 1969 that the 
death penalty for murder was finally abolished. Imprisonment has always been a favoured form of 


230 
punishment. For hundreds of years the Tower of London was regarded as the premier prison in the 
land. 
The progress of civilization has resulted in a vast change in both the theory and in the method 
of punishment. With the growth of law, the state took over the punitive function and provided itself 
with the machinery of justice for the maintenance of public order. From that time crimes were against 
the state, and such punishment as lynching became illegal. In the eighteenth century the humanitarian 
movement began to teach the dignity of the individual and to emphasize rationality and responsibility. 
The result was the reduction of punishment both in quantity and in severity, the improvement of the 
prison system, and the first attempts to study the psychology of crime and to distinguish classes of 
criminals with a view to their improvement. Later law breakers were considered as a product of social 
evolution and cannot be regarded as solely responsible for their disposition to offences. Crime was 
treated as a disease. Punishment, therefore, can be justified only if it either protects society or acts as a 
deterrent, or when it aims at the moral regeneration of the criminal.


Достарыңызбен бөлісу:
1   ...   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   ...   298




©emirsaba.org 2024
әкімшілігінің қараңыз

    Басты бет